Tuesday, October 25, 2016

How low can you go?

Good Morning and Happy Tuesday!

I don't mind Tuesday's. They're not as horrible as Monday's and they get you a little closer to the 'freakin' weekend.

Today I'm going to talk about......WEIGHT LOSS. Last night at my soccer game, I had 2 old teammates re-join our team that have been busy with their lives for the past year. They didn't recognize me. I said hi when they walked up, they responded back, but not like they would have. One of them saw one of my tattoos and was like "Uh, DENISE?? I didn't even know it was you, how much weight have you lost?"

I have honestly been getting a lot of that lately. Not so much of "Who are you?" but more of a double take. This blog post I am going to be pretty honest with my weight loss, because there are SO many people out there that are currently where I was or know where I'm coming from.

K, all judgement aside beside because I'm going to be pretty real right now. When I weighed myself in February of this year, I weighed 212 pounds and was wearing a size 12/14. I never owned a scale before that, and started working out a few days a week in October, so who knows what my weight was a year ago today. I shed several tears that day and wondered how I had let myself go so much. I have played soccer once a week since I was 13, I ran about 5 times a YEAR, I tried to eat healthy, but where did I go wrong, when did I stop caring? I didn't work out much, but how did I get this heavy?

It was a wake up call for me, big time. I started going to a small City of Ottawa gym in October. I would use the machines, run on the treadmill for 10 minutes, do some squats, and call it a day. I never changed my diet in those months though, practically eating whatever came my way. I think I had learned to only look at myself from the shoulders up and telling myself, it's fine, everyone is different.

That day in February I was like, this is not my life anymore. I can't allow this to be my life anymore. I took my first class at Iron North the first day of March and never looked back. I struggled those first few months, let me tell you. It made me realize how unhealthy, out of shape and FAT I was. I had been the type in the past to always be in relationships and make them my priority, but I was now changing my life and not allowing that to be my reality anymore. I have been single for over a year now and it has been the best decision to just focus on me, my health and not shitty men anymore.

I had to do a complete overhaul of what I was eating. I now limit sugars, bad carbs and any processed foods. I tend to eat smaller snack type meals throughout the day, and stock up on proteins and vegetables. I cheat every now and then, don't get me wrong. But loosing weight is 20% working out and 80% what you eat, so I had to be honest with myself and what I was eating.

So, I am now officially down 56lbs and am a size 4. I have gained a lot of muscle mass, but I am happy where I am. I would LOVE to get down another 16lbs, but it's tough when you're weight training a lot. My weight fluctuates between 152lb and 157lb during the week.

God. I cannot believe I'm publishing that number. The number that scared the shit out of me so much that I decided to overhaul my entire life. Wherever you are in your weight, nothing is impossible. When I first started at the gym with my monthly membership I thought, wouldn't it be nice to loose maybe 20lbs? Be able to run a 5km without dying? Maybe lift heavy? Now, my goals are different. I signed up for the Ottawa Race Weekend Half Marathon yesterday, I want to be able to do pull ups without a band, I want to deadlift over 215lb (my old weight, really) and I want to be able to do Spartan next summer! All of these things were never in my range of sight last year, but they are now, and I'm so excited to conquer them all, because I know I can!

Thanks for reading this and not judging me, because we all need that one push, that one thing to start us, right? Mine, was reading 212lb on my scale.